My reason for grabbing Metallica MP3s (pre-Napster) was to replace my worn-out old cassettes that I bought years ago - surely there must be many other people in the same situation! Maybe I'm being a bit anal about it, but your typical MP3 is *not* a 1st generation master as Lars keeps repeating. It's far from it - somewhere between a cassette and a CD (generally speaking). While I think MP3s are great for listening to, there is an obvious (at least to me - I do it for a living, but so does Lars) difference between an uncompressed digital master and a compressed MP3. In terms Lars might be more comfortable with, the difference between the genuine product and the bootleg can be readily established. I so wish that Metallica would have put all this time and money into a constructive solution, like a secure digital download format, rather than penalizing their fans and making a bunch of rich lawyers richer...
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My reason for grabbing Metallica MP3s (pre-Napster) was to replace my worn-out old cassettes that I bought years ago - surely there must be many other people in the same situation! Maybe I'm being a bit anal about it, but your typical MP3 is *not* a 1st generation master as Lars keeps repeating. It's far from it - somewhere between a cassette and a CD (generally speaking). While I think MP3s are great for listening to, there is an obvious (at least to me - I do it for a living, but so does Lars) difference between an uncompressed digital master and a compressed MP3. In terms Lars might be more comfortable with, the difference between the genuine product and the bootleg can be readily established. I so wish that Metallica would have put all this time and money into a constructive solution, like a secure digital download format, rather than penalizing their fans and making a bunch of rich lawyers richer...